Saturday, April 20, 2013

Thanks to my regular visits to Buenos Aires, I've gotten to give this post a lot of thought and experimentation.

Several friends have asked me for suggestions when visiting Buenos Aires, so I thought I'd store this post for future reference:

Buenos Aires has an amazing food scene, while it's very varied in
all the kinds of food you will find, i have mostly stuck to the basics:
Steak, pizza and pasta, and a few special places that I try to visit on
every trip, because i find them awesome:

Before going into the "go-to" places, I will warn you about one,
which is touristy and over-hyped. Do NOT go to Cabana las Lilas... it is
priced for tourists and over hyped. If you're in Puerto Madero my
favorite restaurants are: Mirasol (or Miraflor) a block away if you're
craving steak, Sotto Vocce if you're looking for pasta.

For most places in Buenos Aires you will want to make reservations
for dinner, keeping in mind that while most dinner places open at 8 pm
people don't have dinner until 10 pm or later.

- Campo di Fiori (at the corner of San Jose and Venezuela streets):
Probably one of the best Italian restaurants in Buenos Aires. The pasta
is made freshly on site and is a must if you ever crave Italy quality
pasta outside of the home country. Remember Buenos Aires probably has
one of the largest Italian backgrounds of any country outside of Italy.

For Desert you have to eat Ice cream at Freddo or Persico, look for
"Dulce de leche" flavors... my favorite/mandatory one is "Dulce de
leche tentacion", beyond that just go crazy with tasting as much as you
can. Also get an Alfajor at Havanna (actually, try one of each)

Enjoy a "Tostado" (Ham and cheese toasted sandwich that i love) and
Cafe or Cafe con Leche at one of the thousands of coffee shops on the
sidewalks (check out Florida street)... their Medialunas (croissants)
are also worth the extra calories... make sure to try both the butter
and "fat" ones. Any pastry with dulce de leche is one of the most
wonderful gifts to humanity Argentina could deliver... actually, dulce
de leche in any form is the best substance in the world (after Malbec of
course!)

Go see a Tango Show at night. I went to "La esquina de Gardel"
because we got a local contact to get us an awesome deal on it, but i'm
sure your hotel can find a good option. Well worth it. Sadly enough you
won't make it to see San Telmo during a Sunday. There's Tango dancers in
the streets, and a lot of shops selling quaint stuff.

For shopping you'll find a lot of leather goods stores around the
city, unfortunately I can't be sure on what is a good deal anymore and
due to issues with the exchange rate I'd say Argentina is not currently
"cheap".

Due to a different gravitational vortex, none of what i mentioned
above makes you gain weight... until you leave Argentina! So enjoy your
time there and ignore any semblance of being healthy while in the
country....